After her best friend breaks off their friendship, Ayumu Shiiba begins to seek comfort through cutting her wrists. As she begins high school she hopes for a fresh start, and even makes friends with a girl named Manami Anzai. As she goes through high school however, she finds herself spiraling into more trouble.

''Life'' is a {{Shoujo}} manga written by Keiko Suenobu that deals with harsh issues such as bullying, manipulation, and suicide. It's had a {{Dorama}} adaptation that ran in 2007, ran for 20 volumes , and has won a Kodansha Manga Award.

It was dropped by its licensor Tokyopop at volume 9[[note]]or actually the Japanese publishers of the manga discontinued its license with Tokyopop[[/note]], but [[{{Scanlation}} scanlators]] have began to try and finish it. ----!!This series contains examples of:

* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler:Katsumi's]], mostly his dad.* AdultFear: ''Life'' is just full of this. The manga centers around bullying and self-harm. After her friend betrays her in a jealous rage Ayumu begins to cut herself. Once she enters high school she meets a girl who acts like her friend but turns out to be a bully in disguise. None of her family members know about her turmoils. To make matters worse, the teachers try their best to downplay the bullying and make it seem like nothing is wrong.** Even after [[spoiler: the whole school attempted to make her apologise to Ayumu, even after she tried to kill herself... your daughter Manami still says horrible things like "I bully who I want" and looks like a downright psychopath.]]* AlphaBitch/ RichBitch: Manami.* AmbiguouslyBi: Ayumu's interactions with some of her female friends can be taken this way, but she has a crush on a boy.* ArtEvolution: The art style starts off being somewhat rough but smooths out later.* AttemptedRape: Two of them, the second one was going to be very nasty.* AxeCrazy: Katsumi, and much later [[spoiler:Manami.]]* {{Bifauxnen}}: Ayumu.* BitchInSheepsClothing: '''Katsumi'''. There's one scene with him smiling with the most innocent smile ever, and there are others when he looks downright ObviouslyEvil. ** And later [[spoiler:Manami]].* TheBully: Several characters, [[spoiler:later including Manami]], in a rather twisted but [[TruthInTelevision realistic]] way.* CompressedAdaptation: Many changes were made for the Drama adaptation, including changing what Ayumu's SelfHarm habits to something less graphic and focusing more on the bullying. * DrivenToSuicide: Attempts are made by various characters, leading to both InterruptedSuicide's and BungledSuicide's.* EarnYourHappyEnding* ExtremeDoormat: Ayumu, though she gets better.* ForTheEvulz: Later in the story, [[spoiler:Manami]] outright admits that the reason why she tortures and bullies people is not because of any particular reason or because she's acting out; rather, she does it because it's '''fun'''. She even says that making people suffer is "ten thousand times better than sex."* GenderBlenderName: Ayumu's name is masculine[[note]]the feminine form of the same name would be ''Ayumi''[[/note]], and she doesn't think it fits her. * HeelRealization: After one of them hear Manami talk about how she had Katsumi beaten up to get sympathy points, Manami's GirlPosse realize how unstable she is.* HimeCut: Hirose.* ImportantHaircut: Ayumu has one twice.* IntimateHealing: Ayumu gives Hatori water this way when she is unconscious from smoke inhalation. * JapaneseDelinquents: Miki Hatori, though she's actually quite nice. * LiveActionAdaptation * MindRape: Katsumi does this to Ayumu. Manami does this to everyone.* NightmareFace: [[http://www.mangahere.co/manga/life/v09/c035/31.html Manami]] ''breathes'' this trope. [[http://www.mangahere.co/manga/life/v11/c056/40.html This too]] Brrrr.* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Ayumu and Hatori have a ''very'' deep friendship. * SelfHarm: The series revolves around this. In the LiveActionAdaptation Ayumu cuts her hair, in the manga she cuts her arms and legs.* ShoujoDemographic* SpiritualSuccessor: It's this to an earlier manga by the mangaka, "Vitamin". Both focus on a sensitive girl who gets bullied, a BastardBoyfriend who forces himself onto girls, teachers who don't want to acknowledge the issues, parents who don't get their child's problems due to them not talking about it, suicide attempts, [[spoiler:{{Important Haircut}}s]]. The main difference is how both protagonists react to their bullying for most of the manga, and the fact that ''Vitamin'' takes place in junior high. * TeensAreMonsters* ThirdPersonPerson: Manami. * ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: One of the translations has [[spoiler:Ayumu saying "It's {{karma}}, bitch", at Manami.]]* TraumaCongaLine* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Manami]] experiences this, starting in Volume 16, Chapter 62. ''Everyone'' finds out that she ejected Miss Hiraoka and Miss Toda, murdered at least one person, and caught her viciously attacking Ayumu and school authorities had to grab her to stop it. They realize that she is the one causing the problems, and turn on her fast and hard. LaserGuidedKarma does not even begin to describe it!** It actually starts back in chapter 56 when everyone thinks that she tried to frame Hatori for cheating.* {{Yandere}}: Manami.